I went to see X-Men: Days of Future Past yesterday. While I’ve been looking forward to seeing this movie, I was a little skeptical because there’s so many ways this series could go terribly wrong. I enjoyed X-Men and X-Men: United when both of those came out. X-Men: Last Stand was not a movie experience I would ever like to repeat. Wolverine: Origins was okay, but not great. Same thing with the Wolverine. I thought they did good work with X-Men: First Class, though, so I did have some hope that Days of Future Past would be a positive installment. As I spent the vast majority of my childhood engrossed in the X-Men comic books, I realized that this would also be a prime way for them to be able to reset the entire movie series and fix a whole lot of the things that they really botched in the previous movies. In my opinion, they did a great job with this movie.

Here’s the 13 minute “Someone Has to Review It” for X-Men: Days of Future Past, which is also a pretty good review and goes along with some of the things I’m going to talk about.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was a movie that had a lot going on and a lot of glimpses at characters I’m very familiar with and a few characters I’m less familiar with. I think that there were a lot of people in the theater who didn’t get as much out of the movie as I did because it seemed like most of the movie-going audience’s comic book knowledge is pretty much just based on what they see in the films. I was pretty much the only person in the theater who giggled when Charles, Hank, and Logan pulled up to the house and the mailbox said “Maximoff.” I don’t know if that’s one of those movie secrets that they want to keep carefully tucked away, but anyone who reads comics knows that Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver) is the son of Magneto. And the movie alludes to that very, very briefly.

It was good to see Bishop and Blink in this story and I kind of thought that they would do more with those characters, but I’m glad they didn’t. I’m glad that the vast majority of this movie took place in the past. While the special effects and the storyline for the future part of the movie were really great, I liked the story and the plot in the past much better.

This movie had some moments filled with a lot of heart. There were three times in the movie when I kind of teared up because of how strongly the characters in the past were represented and how powerful their own emotions were. I like movies that are good at engaging my emotions, but not cheaply or in a fake way.

I think the scene with Quicksilver and his music was my favorite part of the whole movie. It was a lot of fun and I laughed at his sense of humor.

Shadowcat and Colossus were always two of my favorite characters, if not my actual two favorite characters, so it was really good to see them in this movie. It often seems to me as though I don’t get to see many of the characters I actually like in movies and that most of the super hero movies focus on the big names, like Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, etc., and while those characters are just fine, I never really understand the big deal with them. And they’re all characters that I don’t actually care about. So I was really happy to see other characters and that this movie didn’t turn into the Wolverine show. In this movie, Wolverine is just another member of a team. He’s the only one with the power to travel back into the past and that surprised me because Bishop is typically known mostly for the fact that he is a man out of time. So that was an interesting development.

I have learned, though, that the movies and the comics for the X-Men are running completely different and separate storylines. I think they do this very well with this movie because it’s just enough similarity so that comic book fans like myself can notice and appreciate the smaller nuances, but that those who are not familiar with the comics are still getting good character development and plot. They may not be getting AS MUCH out of the movies as someone like me does, but I don’t think that would limit their enjoyment of the movie at all.

There is a scene after the end of all the credits. If you are a comic book fan, you will know exactly what’s going on and what that means for future movies. If you are not a comic book fan, I expect that you won’t have any idea what’s going on or why they showed that scene or how it impacts the world and the universe.

The movie was so absolutely gripping that I spent a few seconds every now and again not having any idea at all how they were going to resolve this. So much was going on and so much kept going wrong that it was just a big mess. I am very, very happy with the way the movie progressed and I definitely left the movie smiling. Overall, this movie is easily a four or a five on my scale and I will absolutely buy it when it comes out.

One Response to Movie Review: X-Men Days of Future Past

I too am happy to see the franchise put back on track. It started to feel a biiit self satisfied towards the end, a few too many slow-mo heartbreak moments, but ultimately I’m ready to believe that PG-13 is going to take comics away from G.

Yes, person who brings their 5 to 10 year olds into pg-13 movies, I’m talking to you.